MUSCARDINE. 91 



Rayer found byssoid vegetations on the pleura of a 

 tuberculous patient, and in the intestinal canal of a case 

 of pneumothorax.* 



In 1838, Boehm published the discovery of vegetable 

 filaments on the mucous membrane of the intestines of 

 those who died of CHOLERA. 



Quevenne and Hanover found the yeast plant (torula 

 cerevisiae) in diabetic urine. 



The frequent action of the fungi in the production of 

 disease, is made analogically more probable by observing 

 also, how many diseases of the lower classes of animals are 

 obviously dependent on the assaults of the cryptogami. 

 Among the earliest observed and most thoroughly studied 

 of these diseases is that of the muscardine of the silk-worm. 

 This curious and costly malady was described for the first 

 time in 1835, by Bassi, of Lodi, andM. Balsano, of Milan. 

 Afterwards, in 1836, M. Andouin, who had devoted much 

 time and attention to the subject, published a work on it, 

 and in honor of the firsf describer gave to this deadly 

 vegetable enemy of the silk-worm the name of botrytte 

 bassiano. His statement is to the effect that there is 

 found in decaying or mouldy moss, a very minute fungus 

 which bears very small whitish spores. These, placed near 

 to the silk-worm, attach themselves to its surface, and by 

 some unexplained means, gain access to the pigment, un- 

 der the cuticle, and to the subcutaneous adipose tissue. 

 They are soon converted to the use of the vegetable; and 

 indeed the acute observer of this subject could mark the 

 transformation of the fatty tissue of the worm into radi- 

 cles of the cryptogamic vegetation. By degrees the plants 



* Scherer, cited by Simon, describes, as being found in the peritoneal 

 cavity, after death by puerperal peritonitis, minute cells, organisms resem- 

 bling algce, granules and nuclei. 



